Do you ever think about how sometimes silly it
is that on things like motor oil bottles and
bleach, there's warning signs that say do not
consume, not for bodily consumption? Or like
you go to the roller coaster at Six Flags or
Dollywood and there's a sign that says keep harness
fastened or keep seatbelt on. As if I was actually
going to not have myself harnessed in when I'm
going upside down at 75 miles per hour. Or the
lion enclosure at the zoo that says, keep out.
Who's going in there? The only people, like these
feel like such duh statements, but the only people
that need those are toddlers and dogs, which
are basically the same thing. they're the only
people and they can't read. So for us, we look
at those and we're like, well, duh. Yeah, I'm
not going to do something that is actually harmful
for my body. Well, at least if it's obvious.
I'm not going to do something that definitely
leads to death. But what about the things, what
about being obedient to the things that are not
as easy or convenient to be obedient to? Like,
don't party. But everybody else is going to the
party. So I need to go, right? Like this is one
of those areas where I can maybe do what I want
to do. Or don't drive fast. But all my friends
are drag racing down the strip. So I need to
do it too. Or things like, you know, don't sleep
with someone you're not married to. But man,
she is so attractive. And we have these things,
and I could keep going, and you know the list,
and you know the items that could go on the list
of things that we need to be obedient to because
they're there for our safety, they're there for
our well -being. But it's not as easy to be obedient
to those things. It's easy to be obedient when
it's easy, like when it's obvious or when it's
convenient. But when it inconveniences me or
when it costs me something, it's not as easy
to be obedient then. So this morning we're continuing
along in our series, The Jesus Church, where
we're exploring the book of Acts and we're seeing
the church that Jesus established that started
and spread like a wildfire throughout the ancient
world in the first century. And we've talked
about how bold they were. We've talked about
how committed and generous to each other they
were and how they were only able to do this by
the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. But this
morning I want us to sit on just how threatened
they were. Because you only need boldness when
there's danger, right? And you only need to take
care of each other when people are going without.
And those are threats to our well -being. And
there's more threat to the early church than
I think sometimes we realize. And there's definitely
more threat to the early church than we have
ever experienced. Unless you come from a foreign
country or you've done some mission work where
you've really had to be top secret. Like we in
America don't really face... these types of threats.
So this morning, I want us to put in perspective
what it looks like to truly be obedient to God
when it is inconvenient, what it means to be
obedient to the rules that are there for our
well -being when it is not easy. And so we're
going to look at Acts chapter 5. We'll start
in verse 17. And so while you turn there, I want
to give you a little bit of context for where
we are in the scripture this morning. So what
we've seen in Acts chapter 5, we've just seen
the members of the church, they start selling
off their possessions. They start giving up items
and property that they have so that the kingdom
can advance the mission of God. And then what
we see is because of their generosity and the
power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel is being
proclaimed boldly to everybody, all creation
in all of the world. And because of this, there
is work being done in the surrounding area. The
apostles, they're going around, they're performing
miracles, they're preaching the gospel, they're
helping people in not so ideal circumstances.
And what happens is when they are doing this
in these public spaces, people start to come
to know Jesus. Verse 14 tells us, more than ever,
believers were added to the Lord, multitudes
of both men and women. You see, all of this work
that the church was doing led in the community
to people being transformed, people being converted
to the kingdom of God. And what you see then
is this overflow of people out into the streets.
Like people are seeing the miracles performed
by the apostles. They're seeing the good deeds
done by the church. And so what they're doing,
they're bringing the sick people, instead of
taking them to a hospital, instead of taking
the orphan to an orphanage or a widow to like
a retirement home, they're bringing these people
out into the street so that they can hear the
gospel, so that they can have miracles performed
on them, so that their lives can be changed and
now they can live in a new community. That's
what's happening in the first parts of Acts.
The church was genuinely changing the world around
them. They weren't just talking about Jesus.
They weren't just casually including him in their
life. He wasn't just a part of their life. Jesus
was changing and taking over the world. They
were making a point. To make him the point. And
this was leading to lives being saved and changed.
And that's cool. Things are going well for them.
They're having success. Like in our context,
we would look at it and say the seats in the
church are full. They must be doing something
right. And that's great. But what about when
things really get sticky? So if you remember,
if you've read the book of Acts or if you've
been with us earlier in the book. The Peter and
John, they get arrested. They go before the religious
leaders. They judge them. They say, hey, stop
talking about Jesus and we'll leave you alone.
Very simple. Shut up. That's it. Shut up and
you'll be okay. Well, here, what we'll see happen
in verses 17 through 18 is the same thing. Except
the church. gets a little bit more pressure put
on them. So I want you to look with me at verses
17 through 18. But the high priest rose up, and
all who were with him, that is the party of the
Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested
the apostles and put them in the public prison.
So last time it was Peter and John by themselves.
This time it doesn't tell us which apostles,
but it says the apostles. So I'm going to assume,
forgive me for assuming here, that it was all
of them. Now, it may not have been all of them,
but we definitely know that it wasn't just one.
So multiple apostles, they get arrested. They
go before these judges and they're told, well,
they're not told anything yet. They're thrown
in prison. So they get thrown in prison and you
can imagine like you just get handcuffed. You
get drug into prison for talking about Jesus,
for just telling people this good news. Have
you ever been threatened to tell somebody good
news? Like, hey, did you hear who won the Super
Bowl? I mean, like if it's the Chiefs, maybe
if we're talking to a Broncos fan, they don't
want to hear who won the Super Bowl. If it's
the Falcons and you're talking to a Saints fan,
well, that'll never happen, so we're not going
to go there. Thank you. You don't feel pressure
for telling somebody good news. Hey, there's
a half -off special on steaks at Ingalls. Like,
that's not hard to do. But they get arrested
for the second time after being warned and threatened
that if they don't stop talking about this good
news of Jesus, they are going to die. But if
you remember earlier, they prayed for boldness.
And they prayed for boldness so hard and so emphatically
that it shook the room around them and the spirit
moved and they were filled with the spirit. They
went out, they kept proclaiming the good news
with boldness, unafraid and unashamed of what
might happen to them. And here it lands them
in jail again. And they're sitting in jail. And
I can imagine that they're probably a little
scared. I mean, even though they're full of boldness,
there still has to be a fear that comes over
them. of this could really be the end. This could
be the moment that they finally take us out.
And as they're sitting there, verse 19 says,
an angel of the Lord comes and breaks them out.
The angel comes and releases them, and so they
walk out of jail unscathed. Now I want you to
think about what you would do if you escaped
jail. And now remember, for at least Peter and
John, this is the second time that they've escaped.
And so you have now escaped death twice. What
are you going to do? Because this shows how weak
I am. I would probably try to get as far away
from the people that just threw me in jail as
possible. I might go hide in a cave somewhere.
I could imagine that I might steer clear of the
same crowd that I was running around with that
got me in jail. I mean, I think about all these
different things that I would do, but what the
angel of the Lord immediately, like doesn't give
them any time to question what they need to do.
The angel of the Lord immediately gives them
instructions. And this is what he says to do.
He says, go and stand in the temple and speak
to the people all the words of this life. And
I want it to be noted that life there is capital
L. It's this new life, this abundant life. The
Greek word there is zoe. And so go and tell people
about this abundant life that you now have. We
talk so much about the eternal life. What this
scripture says is go tell them about the good
life, the full life. And I love how scripture
continues to expose my weakness because I think,
now I would hope that I had a little bit more
maturity. I would hope that I had a little bit
more respect. But if this angel just let me out
of jail and then immediately says, hey, go do
the thing that just got you thrown in jail, I
might look at the angel and say, are you kidding
me? I may say something a little more colorful
like, are you dumb? Are you crazy? Are you insane?
I just got put in prison. They've already threatened
me once. I can only imagine what they were going
to do to me this time. I just got threatened
with death for preaching about Jesus, and you
want me to go continue preaching about Jesus?
The angel's like, yeah, that's exactly what I
want you to do. I don't understand where the
confusion is. And because they're obedient, because
they understand what... is at stake here. Because
they understand who is in control of all of this
life. They are obedient. They continue doing
what they were supposed to. These guys are a
lot better than me. Look at verse 21. When they
heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak
and began to teach. Okay, I need to remind my
people that are here every Sunday that if it's
underlined, I want you to read with me because
I don't like reading by myself and I want to
make sure you're not asleep. So let's try this
again. When they heard this, they entered the
temple at daybreak and began to teach. They didn't
even wait for the dew to dry on the ground. They
just got. going and they went and started teaching.
As soon as people came in, they're proclaiming
the good news. And I want you to sit with that
for a second, because I think we might be tempted
to just look at that and like, oh man, that's
so cool. But this is like some serious stuff.
They didn't get to see how this was going to
end for them. For all they knew, there was a
prison guard waiting in the temple. And as soon
as they started talking about Jesus, it was off
with their head. For all they knew, there were
spies. There were people there ready to arrest
them and to do what they did to Jesus. to them,
and they saw what Jesus went through. They felt
the wounds in his hands. They felt him dead,
lifeless, and they did not care. They went to
the temple. They preached and proclaimed this
full, abundant, good life, and what am I doing
when I don't face that persecution near enough,
but I'm scared to go and tell people about Jesus
because they might think I'm weird. I'm scared
to tell people about Jesus because they might
think I'm a goody two -shoes or whatever. I don't.
I need to stop caring about that because my life
isn't being threatened. Theirs was and they didn't
care. They preached Jesus anyways. Because they
knew what they'd been told to do and they trusted
the one who told them. And that's what obedience
looks like. It's regardless of what this is going
to cost me, regardless of what this is going
to do to me, regardless of how people will see
me, how they will view me, how they will treat
me, I'm going to preach Jesus obediently. Not
after God proves it'll work out, not after God
protects me, but before. See, we talked about
boldness a few weeks ago. Well, this is exactly
that. Staring down the consequences and you simply
don't care. You just do what you're told. You
just do what you need to do. And of course, the
consequences do come. In verses 21 through 26,
we won't read it all, but we see the religious
leaders, they find out about the escape. And
they're trying to figure out what happened, and
they figure, they're like, we can't figure it
out, there's no telling, because there's no,
like, this isn't like on, you know, prison break
movies where there's a hole in the wall, and
they're like, man, somehow they got a chisel,
and they were just slowly chiseling away at the
wall. Or it's not like this little air vent that
they, like, bubble gum the vent onto the wall
to make it look like it was there. Like, this
isn't that. They have no explanation. for how
these men got out. And so what they don't want
to admit is the only way this happened was by
God. And they're mad. Earlier they were filled
with jealousy. Now they're angry. And so they
go and they arrest all of the apostles again.
And in verse 28, they sound like every parent
ever disciplining their child saying, didn't
we strictly tell you to stop doing that? See,
when I was a kid, I would get in trouble, and
my big mama, she'd send me out into the backyard
to pick out my own switch. If you are younger
than the age of maybe, let's say, 20, you know
what a switch is. I'm not going to explain that
for the kids in the room. But I'd go, and I'd
have to pick out my own switch. And as she is
tearing up my rear end, this was like 20 years
ago, so statute of limitations, nobody's going
to arrest big mama. As she is tearing up my rear...
end, she is just yelling, didn't I tell you to
stop? That's what the high priest here, that's
what the Sadducees are doing. They're saying,
didn't we tell you to stop doing that? Stop talking
about Jesus. Are you crazy? We will kill you.
And they don't care. They don't care because
they know that what Jesus has commanded them
and called them to do is far greater. And they
also know that if you kill me, so be it. I guess
I'll just have to go live in heaven with God.
How horrible. But I love the response of the
apostles here after being told, didn't we tell
you to stop? I want you to read this with me.
We must obey God rather than men. We must. Not
we should. Not we ought to. Not it would be good
for us to. Not we recommend. We must obey God
rather than men. And obviously this enraged the
Sadducees even more to the point where they wanted
to just go ahead right then and there, kill these
guys. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, he speaks
up and he cautions them. And verses 33 through
39, he goes through these different accounts
of these religious movements, these cult followings
that happened in Jewish history. And what he
says is, hey, remember all of those times when
these different leaders and these different rabbis,
they tried to start movements and they claimed
to be the Messiah? You remember those times?
Well, all of those movements failed. We just,
we killed their leaders and they failed. But
this Jesus movement, it hasn't ended. Like their
leader got killed, but they're still doing it.
They've got thrown in jail multiple times. They're
still doing it. So maybe we need to consider
that there's something more to this than just
some random guy who thinks he's a cool preacher.
And so what he tells them is basically, if it's
a man's movement, it will fail. But if it's a
God movement, nothing can stop it. Can you read
that last part with me? If it's a God movement,
nothing can stop it. If it's a God movement,
nothing can stop it. Nothing. No political leaders
can stop it. No riots can stop it. No other religious
groups can stop it. No poverty can stop it. No
harm can stop it. No threats can stop it. If
it is of God, nothing can stop it. And I think
that's true because look at us now 2 ,000 years
later after all of the leaders of our movement
have gotten killed, have died, have been in prison,
have been scorned. All of those men have gone
before us and yet we are still here today worshiping
God and preaching the good news. If it's of God,
nothing can stop it. And so they listen to Gamaliel's
advice and they beat the apostles. They don't
kill them, they just beat them. You know, they
go get the switch, they tear them up. We told
you to stop, we'll tell you again, cut it out.
And the apostles, they're thick -skinned. At
least that's what I got called when I'd keep
doing things after getting tore up, thick -skinned
or dumb. The apostles, they just keep going and
look at verse 42 with me. And every day in the
temple and from house to house, they did not
cease teaching and preaching that the Christ
is Jesus. They kept proclaiming the good news.
They just don't quit, do they? And the reason
why is what Peter says. He says, we're witnesses
of Jesus Christ and we answer to God alone. Nobody
else. I don't answer to man. I don't answer to
my boss. I don't answer to my, well, we answer
to our spouse's men. They don't answer to us.
They answer to God alone. We don't answer to
anyone else but God. And I think it's hard for
us to really understand that. It's incredibly
hard. And next week, my brother Truman is going
to preach on some like legitimate example of
persecution and what that looks like. I don't
think we can really understand because we are
blessed to live in a nation with the freedom
of religion. We are blessed to be in a nation
where we can gather here. And the only fear of
persecution we have is some cuckoos that get
a hold of a gun. We don't have to worry about
our leaders persecuting us. And so this is hard
for us to understand, but what we can really
understand is the temptation to be disobedient,
the temptation to not... proclaim and not live
the good news when things get tougher and convenient,
which is why I started with the ideas of, you
know, the bleach bottle and the motor oil. Like
nobody's drinking that, but we are absolutely
going to have one too many on a Saturday game
day because that's convenient. And we are absolutely.
going to say those words because we're just so
mad. And it doesn't matter what anybody thinks.
I'm angry. I have my right to say this. And we
are absolutely going to miss church on a Sunday
because, well, I just had so much going on and
it's been a really busy week and we had to get
to the ball game. And we absolutely will align
ourselves with political figures, even though
they act nothing like Jesus, because it's what's
best for our economy. And my pocketbook is really
hurting. So I need to do this because it's what
is good for the economy. and God will understand.
We will absolutely make those decisions of disobedience
because it's convenient, because it gets us out
of danger, because it makes life easy for us.
We become disobedient when life becomes inconvenient.
And here's the thing, the cost of obedience is
something that we really have to consider. In
our Jesus Way series, we talked about the cost
of discipleship. And that's what we're talking
about. To live a life that looks like and proclaims
the goodness of God requires us to give something
up of ourselves. And I'm not going to stand up
here and pretend like it's not going to cost
us. It'll cost us our relationships. It'll cost
us reputations. It might cost us our financial
comforts. It might cost us the status that we
once knew. But that's life. That is life in the
kingdom. But here's what I've come to believe.
The cost of being obedient is never higher than
the consequences of our disobedience. Because
when I'm disobedient to God, I lose heaven. When
I'm disobedient to God, I lose that abundant,
full life. When I'm disobedient to God, I lose
access to the Holy Spirit that gives me love,
joy, and peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.
When I am disobedient, I lose this, this family
of believers that are full of the Holy Spirit,
not full of man's promises and not full of man's
goodness, but full of God's. When I'm disobedient,
that's what I lose. When I'm obedient, man. Darn,
I didn't get drunk tonight. When I'm obedient,
man, I'm not stuck on the side of the road. Man,
when we're obedient, we suffer these little inconveniences
and we suffer these little losses here. But I
promise you, I'll take inconvenience here over
suffering in heaven. Well, I won't be in heaven.
Suffering in eternity. I'll take that every time.
So we've spent this time together watching these
men walk out of jail, go straight back to what
got them thrown in jail. We've actually seen
them get arrested twice. They've been beaten.
They've been threatened with death. And every
single time, every time, they did the same thing.
They obeyed. They trusted God, and they obeyed.
And it would be really easy for us to walk out
of here inspired by that to think, man, those
guys, they were awesome. I just love the apostles,
man. It'd be nice if I could be like them. It
would be really easy to walk out of here feeling
good about this sermon. And we're all going to
feel good about the sermon. Yes. Nobody agreed.
And we're going to go get lunch. But the truth
is, is that's not application. That's just admiration.
And I want you to hear this clearly. And I hope
you will make a mental note of this in your head.
Admiration without application is just polite
disobedience. It's saying, that's really cool,
God. I love that idea for someone else. That's
really cool. That's a great idea. Maybe you should
do that. We can admire it. We can say, that's
awesome. But if all we do is sit here and admire
it, but we never do it, we never live it, we
never act on it, we're being disobedient. We're
just doing it kindly. So let me ask you something
before we sing our song of invitation. Is there
something that God has been telling you to do
or has been prompting you to do? Something that's
on your heart, it's been on your mind that you
haven't done, that maybe you know exactly what
it is, but you're just kind of negotiating with
it. Maybe it's a conversation you've been avoiding
with someone. Maybe it's an action that you need
to take. Maybe it's a habit that you need to
break. but you've been excusing it because, well,
the stress of life is real and this helps me
in this instance. Maybe it's a relationship that
you know just isn't right, but you keep renegotiating
the terms because it feels like if you walk away,
you'll be the one who loses. Maybe it's this
right now, the call to repent, the call to be
baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, the
gift of eternal life. Maybe that like you've
been nodding like, yeah, that's cool. That's
awesome. I'm really proud of that person that
gave their life to Christ. Maybe it's that. And
you've been sitting there with this thought of
that's cool, but you haven't applied it. Here's
what I want you to hear. The apostles didn't
have the outcome before they had obedience. They
walked into that temple. Not knowing how it was
going to go down. Not knowing if the words that
they would preach in that temple would be the
last words they ever said. They just knew what
they were told to do and who told them to go
do it. And that was enough. And I want you to
know that that is still enough today. That nothing
in this life that could threaten you, that could
harm you, that could take anything away from
you is worth more than what God is giving those
who are obedient to Him. Obedience is not the
thing you do after you feel ready. It's not the
thing you do after you understand and you have
all the answers. I mean, when I was in youth
ministry, I would hear so often with kids, I
want to get baptized, but I just don't know enough.
Or I want to be a leader, but I just don't feel
like I'm smart enough. Or I don't feel like I'm
capable enough or qualified enough. Or I want
to come to church, but I don't feel good enough.
That's not what obedience is. Like when I'm telling
my four -year -old why he should do something,
he has no clue why he should do it. Like telling
him he needs to wear a collared shirt on Sundays
when we come to church. He doesn't understand
that. But this morning, praise God, he wore a
collared shirt. He actually picked it out. I
wasn't going to press the issue, but he did it.
He was obedient. He doesn't understand why it's
important to dress a little bit. Now, I don't
care what you wear to church, but my kids, we're
going to look at least decent. He doesn't understand
why that's important. And sometimes neither do
I. But we do it. Obedience isn't what you do
after you understand everything and after you've
got all the answers. Obedience is how you find
out that God was faithful all along. That he
had your best interest in mind all along. It's
like you hear those stories about people that,
you know, they'll say they felt... you know,
a calling. Like they felt like the Holy Spirit
was telling them to go do something. You know,
I heard a story about a guy who was driving down
the road and he felt the Holy Spirit tell him
to go back to the gas station because there was
somebody there that needed some help, that needed
some money for food. They were hungry. They were
without. And so the guy, he listens and he goes
back and he gives this homeless person some food.
And then as he's going back on his way to work,
he pulls up and there's... police lights and
there's a fire truck and there's an ambulance
and there had been a wreck. That had happened
right when he would have been passing through
that area. Now I'm not telling you that I believe
that that's how God always works, but what I
am going to say is I do believe that God has
our best interests in mind. And when he gives
us a command, when he tells us something, when
he gives us instruction, he's doing it for our
good. God works all things together for those.
all things together for good for those who love
him. That is absolutely true. And he does that
in one way by us being obedient to the teachings
he's given us. So whatever it is, that thing
that is sitting with you right now, I want to
invite you to make today the day that you stop
negotiating with disobedience, that you will
just listen, not to pressure you, but because
God, the same God who sent an angel to break
his apostles out of prison, the same God who
has been actively working throughout history
to bring us here today, the same God that put
his son on this earth to give us a chance at
full, abundant, eternal life. that same God is
just asking you to take a step in obedience.
So I want us to pray together today. I want you
to take that step to be obedient to whatever
it is that God is calling you to do. If you just
need someone to sit with you and pray with you,
if you need to be baptized for the forgiveness
of your sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit in
this new full life, if you need the church to
walk with you through a struggle, whatever it
is you need, we ask you. to step out of the cell,
to go into the temple. It's daybreak. Come now
as we stand and sing.